I love NaNoWriMo. I haven't been able to do it for the past 6 years because I've had uni finals in the middle of November for the past 5 years and I graduated high school in November the year before that. Studying is all finally over so I can actually give it a shot this year.

I know nothing about it. Do they have a website? What kind of writing? I need a distraction and a place to direct my distractions.

Hello 17whoaminow,

If you search NaNoWriMo the website should come up.
Basically the point of NaNoWriMo is to try and write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days starting November 1. It's a pretty intense challenge, but it is do-able and a lot of fun.
You can write about anything you like.

Kind regards,

Chrissie

I love to write but I've always been really scared of NaNoWriMo. Sometimes it can take me a month to write 1,000 words!

I'm going to try. I've tried before and never made it but it is a good challenge. It is just so hard for me to keep focused on a story without getting distracted by my life story. It always ends up a train of thought/venting. I have probably written at least that much since my husband came out, but it has no structure.

I think first of all, I don't want this to be about him. He can be in it somehow, but I already spend way to much time thinking about him.

Second, I need a way to be inspired by what we are going through but create something that has its own life.

If it is possible, it should be therapeutic, no?

Actually, I've been storyboarding a story in my head about a short film about how a young wife is dealing with her spouse's transition. The visual trick is that the spouse doesn't actually appear on film, the camera is always focused on the wife's reaction--kinda like what they did in the movie Jackie where the camera was always focused on Jackie even when JFK was in the scene.

Perhaps you could do this in prose, but it would be a bit tricky. You could write it in third person so not to fall into your own particular issues.